


The Purveyor of Direct Action

by Fluffinson (orphan_account)



Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Time is screwy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 00:06:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13329300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Fluffinson
Summary: Constantly, Tannhaus has to wonder who is walking into his shop.2019 - Future Jonas does.





	The Purveyor of Direct Action

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know guys. This is just a little ficlet. Enjoy!

 

 

**2019**

 

The man who walks into his shop is remarkable only in his straggliness.

H.G. has trouble with the stragglies. His only objection is that they usually end up passing their crazies onto him. He's seen a lot of strange things in his time and he'd welcome the distraction only the distractions always seem to make him distraught.

He welcomes him anyway. Welcomes him in and sits him down - it can't be helped that H.G. is maybe a little lonely.

The strapping young man has a kind face, something alight in it. As if there is an invisible flame before it that casts a warm glow.

H.G. almost laughs when the man brings out a copy of his book.

"I haven't seen a copy of that in quite a while." Tannhaus says, or something like it.

He's settled the stranger down and brought him a cup of tea.

"It's always so warm here. Like you're sitting in a cup of tea." The stranger says, "In your shop."

The last part is said as a clarifier but instead it only muddies things up.

"I think I would have remembered a customer such as yourself."

Tannhaus is sure he would have.

The man smiles a little sadly.

It makes him think of the man with the magic gadget from years and years ago. The first incident to result in a postulated theory.

It makes him think of the woman and her machine.

The thoughts lie uncomfortable within him. Possibly some of his good humor has leeched out of his face.

"You're right." The man says. "But I came to you to talk about your book."

"You're a fan." Tannhaus states a little wryly.

The only fans are ones that have been trapped by the ideas mapped out on the pages. He never would have written it if he'd known how many people were lying in the wings ready to burst in on him with happenstance and imaginings. It was only a presentation of theory, not of fact. Theory which would take decades - centuries - to prove or disprove.

"What if I told you that you were right?" It's said in an apologetic matter.

It's more than the others who burst in demanding answers or presenting enigmas he's then made to work on. Tannhaus doesn't understand his own machine. If it's even his.

It probably isn't because that would be crazy.

Everything the stranger says is theoretically true.

Tannhaus has two machines. The woman is only coming back for one of them, with her priest. Tannhaus has an extra.

He may not understand the machinations but he understands the _function_.

"You should leave." He says.

He really should.

The man is so earnest, impresses it on him so gently like he's sorry to have done it, that Tannhaus finds his desk empty by the end of it. The machine tucked under the traveler's arm.

"I'm Jonas, by the way." He says, before he gets to the door, "I knew I could trust you."

"Why?" Tannhaus asks.

His own judgement has been glaringly lacking, he thinks, as of late.

"No matter when I come, how many times I see you - You're always the same Tannhaus. Your shop. It's like it exists out of time you see. It's the only place I can go to - when I feel homesick." The stranger gets a glassy sheen to his eyes, and his face looks sad, "It feels like the only warm place in the world."

But then his face lights again in something like amusement.

"And you're the only warm man." He adds.

Tannhaus chokes on a laugh of surprise.

They're both grinning then and there isn't even anything for them to grin about. There's something there, like camaraderie, something rare like they're cut from the same cloth and have been sewn together and the patterns still match up.

Tannhaus wishes him luck.

 

 

Tannhaus realizes much later that giving Jonas the machine was always a part of Claudia and Noah's plan.

Maybe it's for the best and maybe it's not.

Still, Tannhaus feels the sting of his own betrayal - not against the others but against Jonas who he has no reason to have allied with - and regrets.

He thinks he might not know him, if he saw him at a different age - in a different style. He looks for him, in people's faces, but he never seems to find.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
